It would be very hard for me to pick against Russell here, but I'm going to wait on MJ arguments before making my decision. I think it very much is a two-man race for me (no disrespect to Wilt and KAJ).
Most voters have seen the strong defensive impact numbers on Russ (and the weak offensive numbers from the Celtics teams) as posted by ElGee. I'm sure he'll repost them in this thread once he makes his selection.
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I posted these quotes on Russell's defensive range (thanks to ThaRegul8r for supplying them) recently in another thread, but I'm not sure if many have seen them, and they're relevant here:
"With Russell," said Hayes "you never know what to expect. He has such great lateral movement. He's always got an angle on you. He told me that he can take just two steps and block a shot from any position on the court. I remember the first time I was matched up against him. I was out in the corner and he was under the basket. I figured it was safe to shoot. But as I went up, there he was, tipping the shot.
(Pat Putnam, “Big E For Elvin's Two Big Efforts: His coach didn't let him go head-to-head with Chamberlain and Russell on successive nights, but Hayes wowed 'em anyway.” Sports Illustrated. Nov. 25, 1968.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm)
“Bill’s great mobility enabled him to block jump shots all over the court.”
— Pete Newell
“Russell would chase you everywhere. I’ve taken 20-footers that were blocked by Russell.”
— Johnny Kerr
“Bill Russell used to be able to go out and block shots. You’ve got to differentiate that from Wilt Chamberlain, who would block the shots coming to the basket, but Russell would go out and deter you from shooting.”
— Marty Blake, NBA Director of Scouting Services
“He was a unique defensive player because he could literally come out and play a guard or forward. Most centers can’t do that. Even today, there is no way that they can play guards, but he could do that.”
— Jerry West
“[H]e could go out and defend out on the perimeter, which seems to be a lost art today.”
— Marty Blake
“I’ve seen him come out and pick up players like Neil Johnston and Bob Pettit. He doesn’t stand in one spot.”
— Jacko Collins, supervisor of NBA officials
“He was so […] quick off the ball that he could double-team and trap you at a moment’s notice or jump out to help a defender on a pick and roll.”
— Oscar Robertson, The Big O: My Life, My Times, My Game, p. 142
On rebounding (related topic):
“Russell had an effective rebounding range of eighteen feet. If he was nine feet off to one side of the basket, he could race over to pull down a rebound nine feet off to the other side! I saw him do it many times. That’s the kind of athletic ability he had.”
— Tom Heinsohn, Give 'em the Hook, p. 64
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One other note...I've seen Russell conflated with Mikan a few times in threads relating to this project. I feel like this is inappropriate for a couple of reasons:
1) Basketball is and always will be basketball, but I think the shotclock changed the game. I'd be very interested in research on players before/after the clock was implemented.
2) The NBA through the early-mid 50s (Mikan's era) was far different than Russell's era (which extended through the end of the 60s) partially because alleged quotas seemed to disappear. There were far more black players as we progress deeper into Russell's NBA, and his impact remained at or near the top of the league. I looked at the composition of the NBA in terms of % of players, % of games started, % of minutes played, and % of true shooting attempts (FGA+.44*FTA), and it paints a picture of two different leagues:

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Now, what I'm looking to learn about Russell:
The shooting/scoring in general is obviously is a concern. What quotes/evidence do we have in particular about how Boston ran their offense? Was the goal truly to get up more shots than the opponent? I just did some brief research on this:

Columns 1 and 2 correspond to Russell, columns 3 and 4 correspond to his teammates, season by season. From the numbers, it seems like this was an equal opportunity offense for the most part, Russell doesn't seem too far removed from his teammates in terms of relative FG%. Among players who played at least half of their games that season, there were only 22 instances of players beating the league average by 2%:

8 were Sam Jones, 5 Bill Russell, 3 Bill Sharman, 3 Bailey Howell, 2 Don Nelson, 1 Frank Ramsey. The cutoff is somewhat arbitrary, but if we extend it to all player-seasons above league average (<2% above, since those are covered above), players with multiple seasons in that range:
4 were Sam Jones, 4 Tom Sanders, 3 Tom Heinsohn, 3 Bill Russell, 2 John Havlicek, 2 Don Nelson, 2 Bill Sharman
Again though, I'd like some quotes before drawing any conclusions on this to demonstrate that inefficient shooting was by design.
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As for what I'm looking to learn about MJ (I agree with pen that Wilt and KAJ would be the best four candidates, but I don't see myself voting for someone other than Russ/MJ here):
1) Does he have a case as the GOAT perimeter help defender? How much energy did he exert on that end, each season, through 92-93? How would playing today with stricter hand-checking guidelines affect his impact on that end?
2) A common thread in the Jordan Rules and new Lazenby book, is that teams took away the drive from MJ as defenses evolved (this is evident from watching MJ play against Detroit, and later the Knicks). Of course his post game (especially as he worked more and more with Grover) allowed him to still score inside, but I'm wondering, how much should we value his dribble penetration (which is at or near a GOAT level)?